Glossary

I realize that military writing is often hard to follow. Acronyms take years to learn and as soldiers, we become desensitized and often forget they aren’t real words. Despite explanations given in early blogs, I know trying to remember what they mean can be difficult in later blogs. I’ll build it as I go. Thanks for reading. Steve

ANA

Afghan National Army – the soldiers that NATO is training to eventually take control of their nation.

AO

Area of Operations. A term describing a geographical space where a nation or combat group focussed their work.

BDA

Battle Damage Assessment. A report given following a battle to give operations information.

CALL-SIGN

The name someone is called over the radio.

CHINOOK

A military CH47 helicopter. Can lift upto 20,000 pounds – 42 troops.

CO

Commanding Officer. The lead pilot in the Squadron.

COMPOUND

Home of local Afghanistan people. They resembled compounds as they were walled of hardened mud around a yard with a small living quarters inside. The walls could often be upto 3 meters high. Often large numbers of compounds joined together with access to each other creating villages or even cities.

CONTACT

This word is spoken when you see something but not designating it as friendly or enemy. ie: “Contact house,” means I see the house.

DFAC

Dining Facility. There were four main DFACs on base that the Canadian ate at.

DICKERS

Enemy person reporting on friendly activity for malicious intent. The enemy uses ‘dickers’ to observe where friendlies are located and subsequently signal triggermen to detonate IEDs or commence and attack.

EC DAY

Equipment Care Day. Every fourteen days. A day of minimal tasking giving the troops a chance to have a slower pace, a Bar-B-Q and breathe.

FAM

Fighting Aged Male.

GOLF

Radio talk indicating an artillery unit (guns)

GPS

Global Position System. Navigation system.

GRAPE_HUT

A huge mud structure often 3 stories tall. They were often half to one meter thick in places and hard like concrete. The Taliban used them as bunkers to hide and fight from.

GRID REFERENCE

An alpha-numeric sequence of numbers that identified an exact location on the ground.

A Westcam product that greatly enhances visualsurveillance in the helicopter. Military and police units use them globally.

OPS

Slang for Operations. A place where all activity was coordinated.

PID

Positive Identification – term used to track and maintain a target. PID MUST be established and maintained prior to engaging with lethal force.

POL

Pattern of Life. A report about what kind of civilian activity is occurring. Normal or abnormal. Hiding out in the open.

PREDATOR – PRED

An American UAV

RAMP CEREMONY

A formal memorial service to honour the life of the fallen as he/she boards the aircraft to go back to Canada. Usually thousands attend of all nations as a voluntary gesture of honour and respect. During my tour, the ramp officials often kept people out because too many people showed up than was ramp space available for them to stand and honour the fallen.

ROMEO-TANGO = ROGER THAT = I UNDERSTAND,

I understand.

ROZ IS HOT

Restricted Operating Zone. It is of defined dimensions where only those persons authorized to enter may do so.

RFL (Restricted Fire Line)

This is a line on a map in which a person can not shoot across, nor move in some cases.

Interpretor, usually of Pashtun tongue that could listen on radio and tell the Canadians what the Taliban were saying.

TIC

Troops in Contact. Means they are usually exchanging bullets with the enemy.

TLS

Taliban Last Stand. The airport terminal where everyone gets off the aircraft on arrival and departure to theatre. The TLS is where the final American/Taliban fight was in the early 2000’s before KAF was taken over.

UAV

Unmanned aerial vehicle. Canadian used fun armed UAVs for observation and intelligence gathering. American UAVs also maintained a strike capability.

WACS

Woman and Children. A definite no shoot criteria. Often called to let other shooters know there was potential to harm women or children.

WADI

Name for a river or creek.

WAIT OUT

Radio word to say, I’m not answering yet. I need to get more information first or I am busy.

Thanks. I can see how that would be confusing too. Us military folks get it. LOL.
Dickers are bad guys and they tell other bad guys what the good guys are doing. So dickers report on friendly activity for malicious purposes and have to be stopped. But I suppose from their perspective, we are unfriendly. Maybe I need to reword the entire line. LOL.